Harness those headlines with CSR (5 ways to utilise the media)

Your CSR activities are a great way to create rich content which can be shared across multiple media platforms. This benefits your cause because your business can drive the exposure to educate new regions, marketplaces and audiences.

4 min read

Often traditional media can help do this because they are trusted by their audiences and are a point of reference for information and knowledge.

American Political activist, Malcolm X once said “The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses”.

We have since moved towards a mass sharing of knowledge that is primarily communicated through media avenues. It can influence understanding in the minds of audiences, making messages and the brands that promote those messages stick, and with the introduction of social media we get to become the media makers ourselves, gifting businesses a great deal of power.

Find out how Corporate Social Responsibility is win-win.

In this blog we outline our top 5 ways to use media to drive exposure for your cause and your brand.

1. Website

2. Social media

3. Newsletters and Journals

4. Local, regional and national trade print, radio and TV

5. Charity/cause associated network

So let’s get underway…

1. Website

Your website is a great place to start. In this modern age websites are a great place to learn about a business so when strangers or visitors happen across your website for the first time it is important you can communicate what type of company you are to them.

You never know what motivates a potential client or a media influencer to work with you and having a strong socially responsible outlook and content might endear them to take up your services and/or share your message to a wider audience. 

Make sure you tie the rich and relevant CSR content together with your brand so it’s impact resonates with your audience encouraging them to understand who your organisation is and how you support the cause.

2. Social media

Creating blogs, interviews, articles, photos and infographics surrounding your CSR activities will give you a great deal of content to share with your audience and pull attention to your cause and the support from your brand.

There are 3 ‘low hanging fruit’ social media stakeholder groups that are most likely to share your content. First and most obvious are your own platforms, second your staff (especially if they are engaged with the process of the cause) and finally your network of business partners.

All of these will have an audience and help you promote your cause to create better impact.

3. Newsletters and Journals

Many organisations will have a regular weekly, monthly or quarterly newsletter or journal which they will share with their database. These can be either digital (normally sent via email) or in a physical real-world paper form.

Newsletters are a great way to share your important CSR news with a different audience. You will most probably have a database of contacts whom you will know, so make sure you tailor the style of tone and writing to match that audience.

The benefits of email are that it’s a cost effective way of driving the message and can be done in bulk, and, if you have a competent copy writer in your business may only cost the business their time.

The advantage to real world paper newsletters and journals is sometimes we can be oversaturated in digital content and being able to hold a physical piece of content in your hand allows you to physically engage as well as mentally. Helping the content become a little bit more ‘sticky’ and memorable.

4. Local, regional and national trade print, radio and TV

Mass media in all its forms have concentrated on building large audiences for decades and as such, where possible and relevant, they can be helpful in driving your cause and brand.

 The key to having them engage is to make it’s as easy as possible for them to pick up your story.

With the advent of social media and the expanding influence of these platforms, traditional media have been struggling to keep pace and have been impacted on heavily. Often, they’ve had to make cuts to their staff and with this sacrifice quality content output.

So the goal here will be to make their workload lighter.

For print: supply them with copy ready content and articles (edited and ready to print) that includes quality high resolution pictures.

For TV and Radio: be willing to travel to them. Often nowadays the presenter will be the cameraman, sound engineer, editor and producer rolled into one, whereas days gone by they’ve had three or four people turn up with them.

Like most things it’s about creating relationships with the right people in the organisations so you both have mutual benefit. They get rich, relevant content and your cause gets exposure and reach.

5. Charity/cause associated network

Many causes and charities will have their own network of partners. By working with these we can leverage the relationship to reach into this network and request they promote your content also.

Like your own they will have a website, social media, email database etc

You may have to offer them something similar but providing they are not a competing brand then there should be a great opportunity to promote the cause to that wider audience. 

Click here to learn more about why CSR would be good for your business.